More inspiration from Mary Emmens

Today we're featuring the creative talent Mary from Mary Emmens, to share her fabulous vintage inspiration. She's also kindly offering a giveaway to September's winner and a discount code for her shop for everyone!

I was flattered to be asked to guest post for this month's Le Challenge theme of 'Era'. There are so many different ways to interpret this, you can probably think of more than me, mine is possibly restricted to something 'vintage'. If you know me you probably know that I have a fondness for vintage sheets. I believe that 'vintage' is deemed to be anything that is over 20 years old, my vintage sheets come from an era of the 1960's, 70's and even 80's. But whatever decade they come from it is the colours, the softness, the awesome prints that hooked me in. I started collecting them 4 years or so ago and have amassed quite a few. My first quilt using vintage sheets was this one:

   

 I can't quite believe it; 111 stars of different sizes and different types including;

   

 Here are a few other quilts I have made with strings, charms and fat quarters:

     Vintage Sheet String Quilt 

I soon discovered that while making quilts used up some of my sheets, I still had plenty to spare so opened an Etsy shop to try and reduce my stash!

 Chevron Baby Vintage Sheet Quilt 

You can find quilt kits, charm packs, fat quarters and strips. I'm very happy to make up custom orders; cut other size charms and sometimes I can even supply yardage.

   Vintage Sheet Baby Quilt  

Orbit Quilt made from Vintage Sheets 

But it's not all about quilts! And to be honest a month isn't a long time to whip up a quilt for the theme of 'Era' so how about some other items I've been inspired to make, including bibs, aprons, bags and bunting:

   

So you could go hunting for vintage sheets or other vintage fabrics, you may already have some in your stash. One of my favourite makes using vintage sheets is this bag from the Zakka Style book, teamed with an old pair of jeans, it's hardwearing and lovely to look at:

   

I'm sure you can all find somewhere to hang up some bunting whatever fabric it is made from:

 

One of the most favourite things I have done with vintage sheets is transformed a set of new stairs in our house from this:

   

 to this:

 

I hope I've provided you with some inspiration and to help inspire you to join in this month I'm donating a bundle of 10 vintage sheet fat quarters from my shop to the winner of the Le Challenge link, the bundle will contain fabrics similar to these below but are dependent on what other lovelies I find over the next few weeks!

   

And if you can't wait to see if you win you can use discount code: lechallenge to get 15% off any purchase in my shop up 15 September 2014.

Thank you so much Mary! Such beautiful makes and great inspiration, those stairs are one of the coolest things we've seen. I have previously made a cot quilt using one of Mary's kits and it's been loved by my two girls. Both Nat and I have joined in Mary's wonderful vintage sheet FQ swaps and we've thought about using them in our 'era' projects.

The link party will open on September 15th for you to link up your finished projects based on the theme 'era'. A random winner will be chosen and receive a $25 gift certificate to the Fat Quarter Shop as well as a lovely bundle of 10 FQs from Mary's shop!